I haven't done a lot of shooting lately, but I'm on vacation on Cape Cod, and brought my camera.

I like shooting insect macros. I shoot handheld, and shoot skittish insects like butterflies, dragonflies, bees, etc. Thus, I need fast shutterspeeds. I also use small apertures to maximize the limited DOF. That combination means I need tons of light.

I've used all different kinds of lighting setups over the years, including dual flash macro brackets, a dedicated TTL ring-flash, etc, etc.

Believe it or not, my favorite macro rig is a little pop-up diffuser that I got from eBay for about $10 US. It attaches to the front of the lens and I fire my hot-shoe flash through it. It gives MUCH better light than my $400 TTL ring-light, and is easier to use.

Here's a picture of it:

Here are a couple of pictures I took today:

Note the subtle, soft-edged shadows under the butterfly.

Note the soft highlight on the butterfly's eye. Most of the other macro rigs I've used produce very stark, ugly, unnatural highlights.

So I'm about to get into macro photography and have been doing some research. I have a Fuji X-E1, which is basically a rangefinder style camera and am about to get a Tamron 90mm macro. I came across this thread and like the idea of this diffuser instead of a ring flash. I only ever really use flash for fill (and soon for macro) so I'm not looking to spend a lot on a flash, especially after purchasing three lenses and being hit up for 25% duties by Peruvian customs. The built in flash of my X-E1 is probably not strong enough for macro and so I'm looking at a Sunpak PF20XD [(Guide # 3.5-20 (ISO100-m)] which looks very similar to Fuji's much more expensive EF-X20. It's a small flash and I'm wondering if coupled with the X-E1 and this diffuser if the set up will work for macro. I see the flash used in the picture extends out where the Sunpak doesn't. Also see the tilting Metz 20-C mentioned, but read that the build quality is not so great. If not either of these, does anyone have any recommendations? Again, I'm on a budget, don't use flash much, and am looking to spend around $50-60.